Come then, let us begin.

[condemns_to_live]

You test even my formidable patience.

Activity, Mundane, activity. There is so much I could be doing. I am placed in the center of the multiverse like an Earth arachnid - I could shape any plan I so desired.

All of that...potential. [A smile] Wonderful, endless potential - and here you are, letting me out only on the rarest occasions. Come now. We both know better than that.

Shall we begin, then? There is much to discover.

Comments

[irreversibly_contaminated]

You are being contained? I'll have to send a gift to your handler.

[condemns_to_live]

Temporarily, my dear Officer Sun - temporarily, I assure you.

[irreversibly_contaminated]

Even fleeting peace is still peace. But there are ways to prolong it.

[condemns_to_live]

A threat? How very uninteresting - I expected better of you, Officer Sun, especially after our lengthy history together.

You would think you'd have some more gratitude, as well, to me.

[irreversibly_contaminated]

Given that you are well aware of my skills I'd think you would know it is not a threat but a statement of fact.

I have paid back any debt I owed you by ensuring you didn't die before the war. I owe you nothing.

[condemns_to_live]

Given the participants? A threat. Fact is far more flexible. We've yet to match skills directly.

Much as I aided you and your band? And we stood side by side, how remarkable.

[irreversibly_contaminated]

IN the end what you desired was power over another race, the very thing you despised the Scarren for. Your ambitions are no more noble than Peacekeepers or Scarren.

[condemns_to_live]

I desired to save the known galaxy, Officer Sun. If that required power over the Scarrans, then that is what it required.

I never made a pretense of nobility. Unlike some...mutual acquaintances.

[irreversibly_contaminated]

Save? You mean rule. You wanted a weapon not to dissolve one threat but all of them. John was the only one with enough sense of scope to see what would happen, and we all pushed him to it.

[condemns_to_live]

Rule? I never made any pretense to rule, Officer Sun. Far from it - that sort of effort is wasted, a poor use of my energies. There is so much more to achieve than mere power. Nor would there be much challenge.

And yes, we did. Of necessity, we did. Just think how much heartache you could have all avoided had you simply worked with me from the start. Since, in the end, all that happened happened according to my basic design.

[irreversibly_contaminated]

I am no longer an Officer, I am no longer a Peacekeeper. Those things turned their backs on me when people like you decided I wasn't up to their standards anymore. So you may say you were not interested in ruling, but you took every step to ensure control of people. Control of their thoughts and actions for your own plans.

You were fortunate that John had the means to stop it before everything you claim to care for was destroyed.

[condemns_to_live]

I might point out that I, too, was always the outcast. Oh, necessary for my talents, but never respected. In a way, we're far more alike than you let on. Trained to give forth violence, conveniently tossed aside when we're more trouble than our...erstwhile colleagues are willing to accept.

Under such circumstances, Aeryn Sun, what is a modicum of control, exercised over a situation? I will admit, I was hoping for a more...contained weapon. Such as that which Chricton used to destroy the Scarran Dreadnaught. But what he used was just as effective. And displayed before the eyes of the highest of both sides.

Serendipity, I believe is the word.